The Mount Laurel, New Jersey Police Department arrested John Salyerds as the result of a sting operation. The police ran an internet ad that allegedly offered prostitution services. Salyerds was arrested in a motel room after he responded to the ad.

The police contended that the ad offered a “$50 short stay special.” Prior to the trial, Salyerds asked the prosecution to produce the ad to which he responded. Salyerds contended on appeal that the prosecution gave evasive responses to his request and never produced it.

The prosecutor made the unlikely claim that the police officers who posted the ad to the internet “did not have access to a printer” and therefore did not print a hard copy. The prosecutor also asserted that the police tried to find the ad before the trial so they could print it, but it had mysteriously vanished from the internet. The trial judge barred any reference to the content of the ad since the ad was not produced in discovery.

Salyerds called the number in the ad and asked for the “$50 special.” He was given a motel room number. Salyerds went to that room and asked for the “short stay special.” An undercover detective told him to put the money on the table. As Salyerds was doing so, the detective went into the bathroom. Armed officers then burst into the room and arrested Salyerds for engaging in prostitution as a patron (purchaser of services).

There was no prostitute in the room. The undercover detective did not intend to provide sex. No touching occurred. The judge nevertheless found Salyerds guilty because he provided money in exchange for sex. Whether the prosecution proved Salyerds’ intent was the key issue at trial.

Officer’s Testimony

During Salyerds’ municipal court trial, the prosecutor asked one of the detectives who was involved in the arrest to explain the meaning of “short stay special.” Salyerds objected that the question called for expert testimony and that the detective had not been designated as an expert.

The municipal judge overruled the objection and said that the detective could explain what the term meant to him. The real question, however, was what “short stay special” meant to Salyerds, not what it meant to a police detective.

The detective testified that a “short stay special” is “an agreement between two people to engage in an act of prostitution under circumstances where they agree to the act and the amount itself.” The detective agreed that “short stay special” is not a common term and testified that his understanding of the term was based on his training and experience as a police officer.

The municipal judge found Salyerds guilty on the strength of that testimony. On appeal from a New Jersey municipal judge’s decision, a defendant is entitled to a new trial before a Law Division Judge. The detective gave the same testimony before the Law Division Judge, who overruled an objection that the testimony constituted an expert opinion.

The Law Division Judge decided that the detective was giving an admissible lay opinion and found Salyerds guilty. Salyerds took another appeal, this time to the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division. That court reversed his conviction.

Appellate Ruling

Pretrial discovery obligations in a New Jersey criminal prosecution require identification of expert witnesses and production of either a copy of an expert report or a summary of the expert’s testimony. The prosecution did not comply with that rule. The question on appeal was whether the detective’s opinion was a permissible lay opinion or inadmissible expert testimony.

The term “short stay special” is not self-defining. The term may have different meanings, depending on context. A resort might use “short stay special” to refer to a discounted room price for a weekend getaway. Prostitutes might use the term to mean something very different.

While municipal judges typically allow police officers to give any testimony the prosecution wants to elicit, the Appellate Division paid close attention to the law governing expert evidence. The prosecution offered the detective’s opinion precisely because the detective had more knowledge than the judge about what “short stay special” might mean when that term is used by prostitutes.

Lay opinions might help a judge understand evidence, but New Jersey law confines lay opinions to knowledge acquired through a witness’ perceptions. A witness who simply interprets what the witness saw or heard, without relying on other information, is giving a lay opinion. “It looked to me like he was aiming the gun” is an example of a lay opinion.

Expert opinions, on the other hand, depend on specialized knowledge that is beyond the ken of an ordinary person. The detective testified that his understanding of the term “short stay special” was informed by his training and experience as a police officer. Since the detective relied on specialized knowledge to help the court understand a term of art allegedly used by prostitutes, the detective was testifying as an expert.

Slang Experts

Police officers often testify about their understand of drug jargon in drug prosecutions to explain how a defendant might have understood common words like “rock” (crack cocaine) or “bump” (one gram). They identify numbers jotted on a piece of paper as a “drug ledger.” All of those opinions are based on a claim of specialized knowledge and can only be provided if the prosecution complies with rules governing the admissibility of expert testimony.

The Appellate Division concluded that the trial judge failed to apply the proper legal standard when it ruled that the detective could give a lay opinion about the meaning of a slang term. Since the detective was testifying as an expert, the prosecution’s failure to identify him as an expert witness barred his testimony.

Finally, the court noted that Salyerds engaged in no sexual behavior and did not discuss sex with the undercover officer, except to refer to a “short stay special.” The only evidence of Salyerds’ criminal intent was therefore his use of that phrase. Since Salyerds’ conviction hinged on the detective’s inadmissible opinion that the phrase referred to an act of prostitution, Salyerds’ conviction had to be reversed.